The Frank Lloyd Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of 10 new ceramic sculptures by Satoru Hoshino, a Japanese artist. Towering and spiraling from a small base, the works are at once indebted to process, and allude to the joining and flowing nature of the materials. All of the works in this show are made by the coiling process, a time-honored and direct method of forming clay. It is precisely this purposeful engagement of the hand and the material that makes the sculpture appealing, as the artist allows the process of forming and glazing to be his subject. The hand is a visible and prominent element in the works, and the viscous glaze pools and drips rhythmically on the interior and exterior of the works. This solo debut in Santa Monica introduces Hoshino's work to the Southern California audience.
The coiling technique involves a succession of rhythmical movements that connect a rolled cylinder of clay, and Hoshino builds his vessels in a kind of ziggurat or spiraling form. The imprint of the hand causes the texture of the piece. The history of the technique includes Pre-Columbian pottery and West African pottery. However, this technique is still used by contemporary ceramic artists. Usually, each coil is integrated with the previous one so that its identity as a coil is lost. In the work of this Japanese artist, the rhythmic movement of the hand and the pooling and dripping of the layers of the glazes give the sculptures their significant form.
Satoru Hoshino was born in 1945 in the Niigata Prefecture, Japan. He has been awarded several prizes in his native country, and has lectured and demonstrated in workshops throughout the world. His work is in the collections of many museums, including The National Museum of Modern Art, in Kyoto, the Faenza National Pottery Museum, Italy, and the Musee Ariana in Switzerland. In addition, Hoshino's work is in the collection of Everson Museum of Art, New York, The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, the Kyoto City Museum, Kyoto, Japan, Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, State Decorative Arts Institute in Switzerland, Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu, Japan, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota, and The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. This is the first time he has participated in an exhibition at the Frank Lloyd Gallery.